Italki recommended teachers?

Hey all!

I’ve searched a lot of threads with people asking if they should join italki, but I don’t see a lot of people recommending actual teachers. I see a lot of people just referring to ‘my teacher’ in their posts.

I was hoping people who use italki and have a teacher they like could post about their teacher, if they are a community tutor or ceritified teacher, the level they’re helping you with, and what they’re doing that you like. I think it’d be cool to have a resource where people who are wanting to find an italki teacher will have more of a first hand recommendation. And to give more direction to people who want to use italki but don’t know a good way to practice with a teacher.

I know there’s reviews on the actual site, but they’re usually not really in depth, and I even give perfect reviews for less than perfect lessons because I feel bad leaving anything less than 5. Haha. So I feel like if someone is recommending someone here then they must really like that teacher.

Thanks!

Edit: I have lessons planned with a handful of different teachers in the next week, so I’ll report back as well if I find a teacher I really like.

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I have a couple I do lessons with, but the more robust and rounded one is Kikou. She’s rather expensive compared to others, but I find her interesting, funny, knowledgeable, and always up to handling the strange questions I come up with.

Our sessions tend to be freeform + reading aloud practices, but before we started reading she’d bring me a variety of materials and actively try to teach me grammar patterns and vocabulary :joy: I don’t know if she’s stopped because we’ve started reading things together or because she felt I wasn’t keen on that, but now the things she shares with me are a lot more organic.

I started my lessons with her somewhere between level N4-N3 and a disaster at speaking; I’m now somewhere around N3-N2 (hard to judge, since I don’t follow a specific program), and can hold a conversation.

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Well, given that teachers have limted time it makes sense to keep your favourites to yourself :wink:

But realistically it so individual. It’d be easier to tell who bad teachers are. Depending on your requirements you may need a different tutor. I usually check out the profiles and do a lesson with the ones that seem interesting. In the worst case I just get conversation practice with a new person. Also valuable experience.

I’ve been doing weekly lessons with a teacher who lived in my timezon and was fluent in English. She was good at explaining nuance of Japanese grammar and vocab. But she started teaching at a language school and had to reduce the number of hours at italki and raised the price quite bit. It’s over 30usd, which is unreasonable for what I’m getting.

I’m looking for a new long term teacher now.

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I have a few online teachers that I really like.

  1. Naoto - He’s very pleasant to talk to and he’s very good at keeping the conversation going. I really like that he never interrupts me when I’m talking and he’ll correct what I say after I finish saying it. He also has a youtube channel where he teaches Japanese grammar with manga. The videos are very very well done. I’m surprised he doesn’t have more views.
  2. Shiho- I read newspaper articles with her and then she ask me a few reading comprehension questions, and later we discuss the article’s topic.

These teachers are from Cafetalk which is site just like Italki.
3. Aya- Aya sensei is a very enthusiastic teacher and you can tell that she loves teaching because her lessons are always fun! I’ve taken many classes with her particularly her reading and anime/manga classes. I read yotsuba and the graded readers with her.
4. Miyuki- I really enjoy Miyuki sensei’s lessons! I’ve been reading a children’s book with her and so far every lesson has been very fun.

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